Peak District Tours
Scenic tours - Pride & Prejudice tours
Photography tours - Bespoke private tours
Photography tours - Bespoke private tours
The Peak District is a wonderland of stunning landscapes, idyllic rolling green valleys, sprawling gritstone edges, historic villages, magnificent country houses and bustling market towns.
The Peak District is the oldest national park in England, having been founded in 1951. The park stretches over 555 sq miles in the centre of England, including parts of Derbyshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The total population of the national park is 38,000, but receives over 13 million visitors per year. For lovers of the great outdoors, there are 1,600 miles of public rights of way in the Peak District, including the starting point of Britain's oldest long distance trail, the Pennine Way which stretches 268 miles from the Nag's Head pub in Edale to the Scottish Borders. |
The landscape is made up of impressive gritstone edges, steep limestone dales and almost 200 sq miles of moorland, rolling hills and farmland. Underground there are miles of caverns, famed for the rare Blue John Stone, whilst on the surface there are 5,440 miles of dry stone walls, marking ancient boundaries and dating back centuries. |
More than one third of the park is designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, where important plants, wildlife and geological formations should be conserved. There are 2,900 listed buildings too, including Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, Peveril Castle, centuries old farm buildings and cottages and bridges. There are also almost 500 scheduled historic monuments, including Nine Ladies Stone Circle and the neolithic henge at Arbor Low. |
Well dressing is a distinctive Peak District custom that still continues to this day. Originally a pagan ceremony to honour water gods for the provision of safe water, it has now become a summer tradition in many Peak villages. Week by week, different villages decorate wells and springs with natural, ephemeral pictures made of flowers, petals, seeds, twigs, nuts and berries, pressed into soft clay held in wooden frames. Many well dressings are celebrated with village carnivals and streets decorated with bunting. |